Some Pics from Army Flight Test...

[Loran]

Matt, sorry I meant 318.

[Loach Driver]

On 1/29/2023 at 8:32 PM, EDWMatt said:

LD, there are definitely OH-6 pics, including what I think may be YOH-6 (there are YOH-5 pics). There are pics of the M134 minigun installation and the OH-6 we crashed doing height-velocity testing.  There's a bunch of interesting stuff, OH-13's, OH-23's, early UH-1D's, Charlie-model gunships, ACH-47 and more.

I'm still sorting and it's going to take me a while to get them scanned.  I'll know better exactly what I have once I get some of them scanned.

 

I can't wait! Really looking forward to these new pics. Take care.

 

LD.

[EDWMatt]

On 1/29/2023 at 4:50 PM, Loran said:

Hi Matt, a different topic.  Do you remember our photographer who helped set up the rotor hub video on 532?   Was it Stratford?   Wonder where is is at now?  I also just connected with Bob Williams if you remember him.  Cheers Loran

Don Stafford.  Unfortunately, I seem to remember Don passed away some time ago from cancer.  He had been a photographer with Pan Am World Services at the Nevada Test Site, taking pictures in the caverns created by the underground nuclear tests.  He said they always had to be checked for radiation after the photo sessions and he said a couple times they took his clothes and burned them!  One of his fellow photogs lost all his body hair.  He said they wouldn't provide the results of their radiations screenings, and they had to sue to get them

Great guy.

 

Sure, I remember Bob Williams!  Haven't seen him in quite a while

[Loran]

Matt, sad to learn about Don.  As you said a great guy.  He also told me about his background so I am not surprised.  
cheers

[EDWMatt]

Okay, here's a couple pics for Loran, (and the rest of you guys)

 

 

Here's the team photo of 318.  Loran's the guy in the middle with the red scarf.  Also in the picture is our co-pilot, Captain "LAX Jack" Kimberly (Jack got his nickname from a noise complaint we got shooting an instrument approach into LAX in another Huey.  We made and presented Jack with a "Noise Reduction Unit", which was just a metal utility box with a 9V battery, an amber 'push to test' cockpit indicator light and a toggle switch that turned on the light!), crew chief Kelly Kehalani, instrumentation technician Ben Neimeyer, and, of course, me!  I was all of 24 years old when that picture was taken.  It was freezing on the ramp and I think you can see the snowflakes in the picture.  You can see the camera Loran talks about on top of the slip-ring assembly on top of the rotor.

 

 

318 in-flight.  This photo was taken from the aft ramp of the HISS on an artificial icing flight.  Note the name of a famed TV "hero" helicopter popular at the time applied to the nose.  The number 2 was applied to the nose and sides with masking tape to identify the flight # for photo documentation, so this was the second icing flight.  Loran's in the pilot's (right) seat, and "LAX Jack", with his 'Captain America' helmet is in the CP seat.  I'm in there, too, but you can't see me - my seat was directly behind the co-pilot, and, besides operating the flight test instrumentation, I was also responsible for adjusting the bleed air pressure used to operate the experimental pneumatic-boot deicing system.  The orange contraption on the co-pilot's door is a mechanical ice detection system, which used a small section of an OH-6 tail rotor blade.  318 carried some interesting markings, including a Canadian roundel on the belly (a souvenir of testing in the Ottawa icing spray rig).  We hoped the roundel would cause would-be 'noise compliners' to think we were a Canadian helicopter, but it didn't work.

 

318 was an interesting helo - it spent it's entire career as a test helicopter and only had about 1,400 flight hours at the time.  It had some interesting mods, which I can detail if anyone's interested.

Edited February 9 by EDWMatt

[Loach Driver]

Here we go! More photos and stories of test helicopters. Yes, please detail the mods "airwolf" was fitted with. Always fascinating to hear about some of the tech fitted and tests being undertaken.

 

PS. Is that an Argentine Air Force decal on the pillar behind the pilot's door? 👍

 

LD.

[EDWMatt]

17 hours ago, Loach Driver said:

Here we go! More photos and stories of test helicopters. Yes, please detail the mods "airwolf" was fitted with. Always fascinating to hear about some of the tech fitted and tests being undertaken.

 

PS. Is that an Argentine Air Force decal on the pillar behind the pilot's door? 👍

 

LD.

Cool beans, LD.  Will have some detailed info on 318 up soon. 

 

We used to apply all sorts of temporary unauthorized markings (like the "AIrwolf" title) to the aircraft during icing season.  That year, we put 'shark mouth' markings (like the Flying Tigers) to the nacelles of the U-21 cloud sampling aircraft with vinyl contact paper.  And, to "honor" the first female test pilot to fly behind the HISS, we also applied some other, extremely "non PC", markings to the U-21.  Could never get away with that today.  Different times...

 

No, that's not an Argentine Air Force roundel on the plate holder.  As I recall, it was the "United Federation of Planets" seal from 'Star Trek'!  The decal above it is the Air Force Systems Command logo.  Incidentally, that plate holder was on all Huey's and was used to mount a rank insignia board whenever there was a VIP on the aircraft.  I recall once, when the AMC Commanding General (2-star) came to visit AEFA, the crew chief accidentally installed the board upside down on the Huey(with the top point of the stars pointing down).  In military protocol, this signified the helicopter was carrying a fallen (dead) General!  Ooops...  Fortunately, he didn't notice (or didn't say anything).

 

BTW, my new slide scanner is supposed to be delivered today, so should have some new (and exciting!) stuff to post before too long.

Edited February 11 by EDWMatt

[Loran]

Matt, thanks for all the photos and also the stories about the "unauthorized markings".  I remember how surprised I was when I found the very large Canadian decal under the belly.  

 

 The one unique feature that was developed on 318 was that HUB mounted camera and cabin display that allowed us to see and record the ice accretion and the deicing sequence on the very dynamic rotating blades in real time.  If some of that video can ever be found, I believe that it would be very valuable.  Every month I still see interest in our rotorcraft pneumatic research reports.  

 

Best of luck with the new scanner.

 

Cheers

[EDWMatt]

2 hours ago, Loran said:

Matt, thanks for all the photos and also the stories about the "unauthorized markings".  I remember how surprised I was when I found the very large Canadian decal under the belly.  

 

 The one unique feature that was developed on 318 was that HUB mounted camera and cabin display that allowed us to see and record the ice accretion and the deicing sequence on the very dynamic rotating blades in real time.  If some of that video can ever be found, I believe that it would be very valuable.  Every month I still see interest in our rotorcraft pneumatic research reports.  

 

Best of luck with the new scanner.

 

Cheers

I'm still looking to see if I have those tapes, Loran.  I have a whole box of video tapes I saved from the Army, so might be something in there.  I'm not the most organized person, and I have 3 houses at the moment, so figuring out where things are can be challenging.

 

The hub-mounted camera, I think, may have been the first time a video camera had been mounted on the rotor system of a helicopter (there had been film cameras in the past).  As Loran mentions, I had a monitor and a VCR at the flight test engineer's station in the helicopter where I could see and record the image real-time.  Cutting edge stuff for 1984.

We initially had problems with the window on the camera box icing up and obscuring the image.  We ended up securing some Ni-chrome wire to the window with clear RTV as a makeshift heater grid.  Worked a treat.  I had a similar issue not too long ago with a camera on a Global Hawk.  Now you can buy nice optically-clear stick-on heater grids.

The images from the camera were eye-opening.  It was a little hair-raising to see the gyrations the blade went through in flight, including bending and twisting.  Made you think a little bit about flying in the machine.

[Loach Driver]

Here are two photos of the third OH-58D prototype. I've been trying to find other photos of the original five test ships but they seem to be extremely rare, online. 

 

LD.

 

 

 

 

[EDWMatt]

I'm pretty sure we had one of those 'early birds' at AEFA when I started, LD.  Had the 'flight test orange' cowlings like your first photo of Ship 3.  I think it might have been Ship 5.  Don't remember if it had the updated engine cowling by then or not, but it still had the clear windows in the rear doors.  My buddy Bill was the FTE on that bird - I'll ask him what he remembers.  Not sure if I have any pics of it or not.  I'll search around.

[BWDenver]

6 hours ago, EDWMatt said:

 but it still had the clear windows in the rear doors.  

 

The OH-58D AHIP birds all started life with clear back door windows.  They were forced to replace the plex when they did the qualifications for the "Prime Chance" armed AH-58D's.  The electronics on the back of frigates played heck with the avionics.  They essentially turned the back end of the birds into Faraday Cages.  All the docs of the Prime Chance birds listed them as AH-58D's.

[Loach Driver]

17 hours ago, EDWMatt said:

I'm pretty sure we had one of those 'early birds' at AEFA when I started, LD.  Had the 'flight test orange' cowlings like your first photo of Ship 3.  I think it might have been Ship 5.  Don't remember if it had the updated engine cowling by then or not, but it still had the clear windows in the rear doors.  My buddy Bill was the FTE on that bird - I'll ask him what he remembers.  Not sure if I have any pics of it or not.  I'll search around.

 

Thanks Matt, I'd appreciate that. The development of the OH-58D from the winning proposal in 1981 to the first production variant delivered to the Army is poorly recorded, as far as I can tell. Photos of the five prototypes are fairly thin on the ground. Maybe the Army Aviation Digest has a good write-up on their development and on the test program. That publication gave a lot of attention to the development of the AH-64. Thanks.

 

LD.

 

[Loran]

I remember being asked to look at some operator concerns on the OH-58D which I will not describe here.  The first time I picked up the  OH-58D (compared to the standard OH-58) I became very happy with the improved SCAS. 

[Loach Driver]

I managed to find two more photos of OH-58D prototypes. First up is Ship No.2, in a configuration and paint scheme that is just dying to be replicated in miniature form! I think the colours in this photo are off a little. The red should probably day-glo orange, similar to the orange in the second photo. I'd imagine the zinc chromate-like colour is probably a bit paler too.

 

 

 

 

And here is Ship No.5. I believe this was the first of the prototypes to get the production-standard engine cowling. Another bright test ship that would look good in 1/72 or 1/35.

 

 

Now I just need to find a photo of OH-58D No.1.

 

LD. 

Edited February 26 by Loach Driver
Adding a photo.

[11bee]

Not sure if this picture belongs here or not.    Any idea what the story is behind this OH-58?

 

[BWDenver]

Some docs I have list it as an OH-58C+, others JOH-58C.  The MPLH gear facilitated rapid air shipping.  The birds would be ready for flight in about 20 minutes or less.  Get 4 folks with ratchets to crank it up.

 

They operated at Ft Lewis for a while as "Light Combat Helicopter" tests then were all demoded.  The UHF antenna was relocated to the top of the nose to speedup shipping on a C-130.  The Vert Stab

also pivoted to lower the height, along with the blades folding.

 

They were a stepping stone to the OH-58D Prime Chance and 58D(I).

 

Looks like a PR shot, crew all set to take off, with the pitot cover on…

Edited February 28 by BWDenver
update

[BWDenver]

S/N 69-16285 was the bird that was used for the Preliminary airworthiness Flight test flown at Arlington Tx between 7 May and 9 August 1984...

 

[EDWMatt]

On 2/25/2023 at 3:51 PM, Loach Driver said:

I managed to find two more photos of OH-58D prototypes. First up is Ship No.2, in a configuration and paint scheme that is just dying to be replicated in miniature form! I think the colours in this photo are off a little. The red should probably day-glo orange, similar to the orange in the second photo. I'd imagine the zinc chromate-like colour is probably a bit paler too.

 

 

 

 

And here is Ship No.5. I believe this was the first of the prototypes to get the production-standard engine cowling. Another bright test ship that would look good in 1/72 or 1/35.

 

 

Now I just need to find a photo of OH-58D No.1.

 

LD. 

Yup, LD, pretty sure it was Ship 5 we had at AEFA when I started there.  Looked just like the picture, though don't remember whether it still had the "5" on the tail at the time.  I plan to build that bird with the 1/48th Italeri kit.

The pic you have of Ship 2 looks like the color's have shifted towards the blue.  The orange should be "Flight Test Orange" (International Orange, FS 12197), while I think the chromate should be yellower and brighter.  Take a look at the 'harlequin' OH-58D(I) I posted early in the thread to see what Bell chromate looked like.  It's that ugly neon yellow-green stuff, although the shade can vary a bit.  Gunze yellow chromate or yellow green are good simulations.  Ship 2 would make a cool model, though would require some scratchbuilding.

[Loach Driver]

9 minutes ago, EDWMatt said:

Yup, LD, pretty sure it was Ship 5 we had at AEFA when I started there.  Looked just like the picture, though don't remember whether it still had the "5" on the tail at the time.  I plan to build that bird with the 1/48th Italeri kit.

The pic you have of Ship 2 looks like the color's have shifted towards the blue.  The orange should be "Flight Test Orange" (International Orange, FS 12197), while I think the chromate should be yellower and brighter.  Take a look at the 'harlequin' OH-58D(I) I posted early in the thread to see what Bell chromate looked like.  It's that ugly neon yellow-green stuff, although the shade can vary a bit.  Gunze yellow chromate or yellow green are good simulations.  Ship 2 would make a cool model, though would require some scratchbuilding.

 Thanks for the colour tips. I messed around with the pic for a minute and came up with this version of it. Not fully correct but a bit closer to the real colour of the helicopter than the first version of this pic. 

 

 

LD.

[EDWMatt]

20 hours ago, BWDenver said:

Some docs I have list it as an OH-58C+, others JOH-58C.  The MPLH gear facilitated rapid air shipping.  The birds would be ready for flight in about 20 minutes or less.  Get 4 folks with ratchets to crank it up.

 

They operated at Ft Lewis for a while as "Light Combat Helicopter" tests then were all demoded.  The UHF antenna was relocated to the top of the nose to speedup shipping on a C-130.  The Vert Stab

also pivoted to lower the height, along with the blades folding.

 

They were a stepping stone to the OH-58D Prime Chance and 58D(I).

 

Looks like a PR shot, crew all set to take off, with the pitot cover on…

We referred to those as JOH-58C's or MPLH's in flight test.  I think they were also JOH-58C's in the operational fleet, although I've also heard them referred to as "OH-8's" (which was also used for Little Birds).  The Army had all sorts of weird 'unofficial' internal designations that were applied to various airframes at different times, which can be confusing. The MPLH's were none to popular with the operational guys, I think there's some comments about them earlier in the thread or in the AH-6 picture thread.  The MPLH's had armament provisions along with the air transport mods

There were some really weird iterations of the MPLH detailed earlier in this thread, mostly related to the 9th ID HTLD at Ft. Lewis.  One had a M197 20mm gun from a Cobra in place of the co-pilot' seat(!), and the other was the "OH-58X Surrogate" that I tested, which was an MPLH with a commercial FLIR and Ferranti DVO on the roof.  It was supposed to get the entire drivetrain from the D-model, which would have made it a lot like the 406CS, but the AHIP PM nixed that, as it was competition for his airframe.  "OH-58X" was one of those 'unofficial' designations. I was involved with 2 different "OH-58X's", the modded  MPLH and the D-model with the LO kit.  Also, all the Little Bird designations between the AH-6C and A/MH-6N were all unofficial internal Army designations (i.e. not assigned through Wright Patterson)

Probably should get my old photos in this thread off of Photobucket so they don't have that annoying watermark...

Edited March 1 by EDWMatt

[EDWMatt]

18 hours ago, BWDenver said:

S/N 69-16285 was the bird that was used for the Preliminary airworthiness Flight test flown at Arlington Tx between 7 May and 9 August 1984...

 

Are you sure it was in '84?  Maybe that was the Qual Eval for the Limited Airworthiness release for ADEA Scout II?     I show the 2-position gear PAE in 1980 and LCH A&FC  and M197 gun as 1981, so the LCH config was around prior to '84.    16285 sounds familiar, I think it might be the airframe used for the A&FC, but don't have that report handy at the moment to check.

[BWDenver]

2 hours ago, EDWMatt said:

Are you sure it was in '84?  Maybe that was the Qual Eval for the Limited Airworthiness release for ADEA Scout II?     I show the 2-position gear PAE in 1980 and LCH A&FC  and M197 gun as 1981, so the LCH config was around prior to '84.    16285 sounds familiar, I think it might be the airframe used for the A&FC, but don't have that report handy at the moment to check.

From the Doc:  "The preliminary Airworthiness evaluation of the OH-58D helicopter was conducted In Arlington, between 7 May and 9 August 1984" 

 

It was a PAE flight test.  Not sure if that maps to the "Limited Airworthiness release for ADEA Scout II" you mentioned.

 

The Serial No. of the shot 11bee posted is 68-16870, that was bird used to conduct the Airworthiness flight test of the OH-58C Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Flight Test at Edwards 22 July through 9 September 1981.

Edited March 1 by BWDenver

[11bee]

6 hours ago, EDWMatt said:

We referred to those as JOH-58C's or MPLH's in flight test.  I think they were also JOH-58C's in the operational fleet, although I've also heard them referred to as "OH-8's" (which was also used for Little Birds).  The Army had all sorts of weird 'unofficial' internal designations that were applied to various airframes at different times, which can be confusing. The MPLH's were none to popular with the operational guys, I think there's some comments about them earlier in the thread or in the AH-6 picture thread.  The MPLH's had armament provisions along with the air transport mods

There were some really weird iterations of the MPLH detailed earlier in this thread, mostly related to the 9th ID HTLD at Ft. Lewis.  One had a M197 20mm gun from a Cobra in place of the co-pilot' seat(!), and the other was the "OH-58X Surrogate" that I tested, which was an MPLH with a commercial FLIR and Ferranti DVO on the roof.  It was supposed to get the entire drivetrain from the D-model, which would have made it a lot like the 406CS, but the AHIP PM nixed that, as it was competition for his airframe.  "OH-58X" was one of those 'unofficial' designations. I was involved with 2 different "OH-58X's", the modded  MPLH and the D-model with the LO kit.  Also, all the Little Bird designations between the AH-6C and A/MH-6N were all unofficial internal Army designations (i.e. not assigned through Wright Patterson)

Probably should get my old photos in this thread off of Photobucket so they don't have that annoying watermark...

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the very early TF160 folks either had some of these or were planning on using them for Operation Honey Badger or one of its predecessors.   

[EDWMatt]

2 hours ago, BWDenver said:

From the Doc:  "The preliminary Airworthiness evaluation of the OH-58D helicopter was conducted In Arlington, between 7 May and 9 August 1984" 

 

It was a PAE flight test.  Not sure if that maps to the "Limited Airworthiness release for ADEA Scout II" you mentioned.

 

The Serial No. of the shot 11bee posted is 68-16870, that was bird used to conduct the Airworthiness flight test of the OH-58C Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Flight Test at Edwards 22 July through 9 September 1981.

Ah, thanks for the clarification!  That  timeline now makes perfect sense!  My (future) boss was the FTE on the '58D PAE.
The timeline for 68-16870 fits the JOH-58C A&FC.  That photo looks like Arlington, however.  It's not Edwards
The "ADEA Scout II" configuration is, I believe the "OH-58X Surrogate" I tested.  The program was terminated when we were part-way through the A&FC, so the mission equipment was removed and we continued to test the SFENA SCAS as part of the legacy OH-58 loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE) investigation.  16349 had the SFENA SCAS and the 206-L1 tail rotor installed.  I spent about 3 years doing various testing trying to solve the LTE problem.
For the acronym-challenged, "PAE" is Preliminary Airworthness Evaluation, which is a initial look at a new or modified aircraft to determine basic characteristics and identify any issues.  "A&FC" is Airworthiness and Flight Characteristics evaluation.  This is a much more in-depth test, and is used to develop flight manual data and usually involves flying all the configurations the aircraft will operate in.  "SCAS" is Stability and Control Augmentation System.  SFENA is a French avionics manufacturer.  What it stands for escapes me at the moment.